


Mather

by wheel_pen



Series: Daisy [45]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Naughtiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 21:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Council hires a consultant. “He doesn’t just hunt witches, but all supernatural creatures he believes are evil. He’s been trained since childhood to identify and defeat them.” This story is unfinished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mather

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Daisy, my original character, moved to Mystic Falls about a year ago. There is something special about her.
> 
> 2\. This series begins with the first season of the TV show and completely diverges about halfway through the first season. Facts revealed later on the show might not make it into this series.
> 
> 3\. Underage warning: This series may contain human or human-like teenagers, in high school, in sexual situations.
> 
> 4\. The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate being able to play in this universe.

            “Oh, Park Place, huh?” Elena declared smugly. “Let’s see… you owe me $320!”

            Stefan moaned good-naturedly and forked over the cash from his dwindling stack as Elena and Bonnie laughed heartlessly. Then Bonnie picked up the dice and gave them a roll. Her toss was too forceful, though, and they tumbled off the table onto the floor. Making a noise of frustration she bent to retrieve them. “What should it be, Daisy?” Elena called over to me.

            I was sitting on the couch with my back to them, trying and failing to read a magazine. The failure wasn’t due to the exuberant gamers behind me, but rather the sense of unease I’d felt all day. “Seven,” I answered anyway. “Reading Railroad.”

            “Yes!” Bonnie exulted, moving her game piece to the correct tile. “I’ll buy that.” It would not be fair to use supernatural powers when playing a friendly game, especially since Elena didn’t _have_ any powers. But as a non-participant I was occasionally called upon to arbitrate.

            Stefan and I both looked towards the window facing the front lawn. “Damon’s home,” I announced, hopping up to meet him. “How was the Council meeting?” I demanded, before I even kissed him.

            “Boring,” he claimed, heading back into the living room. “Jonas Fell brought these disgusting jelly donuts from, like, Seven-Eleven. It was like trying to eat a week-old—hmm, I think I’ll censor myself to avoid being set on fire,” he decided upon spotting Bonnie.

            “Rare prudence,” she commented.

            “What did you talk about?” I pressed. I had been unusually jumpy all day, for no reason I could logically deduce, and the Council meeting had been the most significant event so far.

            “So get this,” Damon reported with amusement. He sat down at his laptop and began to type in a Word document. “The Council wants to hire a _consultant_.”

            I froze at this news, possibilities tumbling rapidly through my mind. “An anti-vampire consultant?” Stefan asked, bemused.

            “Maybe it’s the Exorcist,” Elena joked.

            “Or the Ghostbusters,” Bonnie cracked.

            “They passed a file around about him,” Damon went on, typing the words he’d memorized without thinking. “I’ll look for his picture on the Internet. They want him to come to town next week and assess the situation.”

            “Con man?” Stefan guessed.

            “Or a whackaloon,” Damon suggested.

            With a sinking feeling I walked around to Damon’s side to read what he was typing. I thought I had prepared myself sufficiently, but I couldn’t help drawing a sharp breath when I saw the name.

            “Mather.” Everyone turned to stare at me, frivolity forgotten.

            “You know this guy?” Damon asked, still typing mindlessly.

            “He’s a witch hunter,” I said bluntly, and eyes flickered to Bonnie. “From a long line of witch hunters.”

            “Cotton Mather was involved with the Salem witch trials,” Bonnie remembered, her tone no longer joking.

            “Is he really a threat?” Stefan asked me seriously.

            I was already trying to see the ways this could play out, and none of them were good. “He doesn’t just hunt witches, but _all_ supernatural creatures he believes are evil. He’s been trained since childhood to identify and defeat them.”

            “Nice work if you can get it,” Damon quipped.

            I wasn’t smiling. “The Council was incredibly stupid to attract his attention,” I judged, slightly stunned by the choice. “He’ll target not just vampires and witches, but the werewolves, too.”

            “Will he target _you_?” Damon asked, looking up at me.

            “He’ll identify me as soon as he sees me,” I told him. I started to pace.

            “Let’s look him up,” Stefan said, and Elena rushed to the other computer while he and Bonnie started combing through the books around us for more information. But I already knew all the history I needed to.

            “There’s a chance he might not think I’m evil,” I said, more to myself.

            Damon scoffed tactlessly. “Why not?”

            “He works from a Christian perspective,” I explained to them. “In the first few centuries AD, sibyls were venerated as pre-Christian prophets who predicted the birth of Jesus. Michelangelo later painted them in the Sistine Chapel. It was largely a PR campaign,” I admitted.

            “Wikipedia says Increase Mather was a moderating influence on the Salem witch trials,” Elena reported in confusion. “He said it was ‘better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned.’”

            “Grams said the _real_ witches escaped Salem before the trials,” Bonnie contributed.

            “So he knew the people on trial were innocent?” Stefan surmised.

            “Couldn’t look like he sympathized _too_ much, though,” Damon deduced. “Might be the next one to swing.”

            “What does he know about us?” Stefan asked me pragmatically.

            “He’ll know all the lore, mythology, rules,” I answered. “It’s been drilled into him. And he’ll have technology—like the vampire compass, but more sophisticated.”

            “But he’s human, right?” Damon checked. “If he’s human we can take him.”

            “Actually…” I was dredging up all the information I could from my brain as Stefan and Bonnie piled books on the table. “There’s a rumor that the Mathers consider themselves _blessed_ with abilities that help them defeat evil.”

            “Did you read this on the mystical message board?” Damon inquired snidely.

            I ignored him. “It’s deeply ironic, really… They might actually have originated as a family of witches.”

            “The witch hunter is a witch?” Bonnie repeated with fierce indignation.

            “I’m a vampire who hunts vampires,” Damon pointed out.

            Bonnie gave him a frosty look. “I thought witches would have more integrity than that.” Damon made a face at her.

            “He might not be a witch exactly,” I hedged, trying to get them back on track. “Something with supernatural abilities that can be passed down from generation to generation. Might be genetic, might be a magical object…”

            “What kind of abilities?” Elena wanted to know.

            I shook my head. “I’ll have to do some research. Most of the stories will be exaggerated legends anyway.” I gave them all a serious look. “If any of us are even in the same room with him, he’ll pick us out right away. Elena,” I added, “you’ll have to be our eyes and ears.” I could tell Stefan didn’t like that idea. But there weren’t a lot of other options that I could see.

            “I vote preemptive strike,” said Damon, unsurprisingly. “Let’s fry him now, before he fries us.” Naturally Stefan didn’t like that idea, either, despite the very real threat to his safety.

            “His profession is dwindling, but there _are_ others out there,” I warned. “If he’s killed before he even gets here the whole clan will descend upon us.”

            Damon stopped my pacing by pulling me close to him. “Well you better get thinkin’ about how to save our a-ses then, baby,” he smirked.

            “As usual, you’re not taking this threat seriously,” I accused. I realized I sounded unusually upset, but, well—I _was_. Even with the werewolves, the Council was almost laughably ineffective in protecting the town from vampires, relying heavily on Damon—they must’ve thought he was some kind of super-soldier by this point. Mather constituted the first true threat I’d encountered in Mystic Falls.

A vague plan was already forming in my mind. “I doubt he’s ever encountered a sibyl. He may have been taught about them, but—if I hang back, my appearance at a key moment might… confuse him,” I ventured.

            “Good plan,” Damon said sarcastically. “While he’s confused by you, we can tie his shoelaces together.”

            I gave him a dark look. “The ideal plan would be to somehow convince him that there’s nothing evil for him to defeat in Mystic Falls, so he would just leave of his own accord,” I suggested.

            “That could be difficult,” remarked Stefan, looking directly at his brother.


End file.
